Amazon still experimenting with physical stores

Workers at an Amazon Go store, currently open only to Amazon employees, are seen through an exterior window as they make sandwiches inside, Thursday, April 27, 2017, in Seattle. Amazon.com Inc. reported a ... more

Workers at an Amazon Go store, currently open only to Amazon employees, are seen through an exterior window as they make sandwiches inside, Thursday, April 27, 2017, in Seattle. Amazon.com Inc. reported a first-quarter profit of $724 million. The Seattle-based company said it had profit of $1.48 per share, topping Wall Street expectations. Amazon Go shops are convenience stores that don't use cashiers or checkout lines, but use a tracking system that of sensors, algorithms, and cameras to determine what a customer has bought. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) less

Photo: Elaine Thompson, STF

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FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, file photo, employees smile as they unlock and open the door to the first customers at the opening day for Amazon Books, the first brick-and-mortar retail store for online ... more

FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, file photo, employees smile as they unlock and open the door to the first customers at the opening day for Amazon Books, the first brick-and-mortar retail store for online retail giant Amazon. Although Amazon already dominates e-commerce, 90 percent of worldwide retail spending is still in brick-and-mortar stores, according to eMarketer. Amazon has the chance to change retail with automation and data-mining technologies borrowed from e-commerce. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) less

Photo: Elaine Thompson, STF

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FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, file photo, customer Kirsty Carey, left, gets ready to swipe her credit card for clerk Marissa Pacchiarotti, as she makes one of the first purchases at the opening day for ... more

FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, file photo, customer Kirsty Carey, left, gets ready to swipe her credit card for clerk Marissa Pacchiarotti, as she makes one of the first purchases at the opening day for Amazon Books, the first brick-and-mortar retail store for online retail giant Amazon, in Seattle. Although Amazon already dominates e-commerce, 90 percent of worldwide retail spending is still in brick-and-mortar stores, according to eMarketer. Amazon has the chance to change retail with automation and data-mining technologies borrowed from e-commerce. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) less

Photo: Elaine Thompson, STF

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An Amazon worker wheels back a cart after loading a bag of groceries into a customer's car at an AmazonFresh Pickup location in Seattle.﻿

Is the online giant of retail also looking to conquer physical stores?

Amazon has been dabbling in physical retail since 2015, during which time it's opened a half-dozen bookstores that double as gadget emporia, a score of campus bookstores that don't sell books and a convenience store without cashiers. For now, its efforts seem largely experimental, though that may not be true for long.

Although the company already dominates e-commerce, 90 percent of worldwide retail spending is still in brick-and-mortar stores, according to eMarketer. Amazon has the chance to change retail with automation and data-mining technologies borrowed from e-commerce.

"It seems counterintuitive they are investing in any physical stores when they are blamed for the demise of so many of them, but no cow is sacred," said Sucharita Mulpuru, a retail analyst in Charlotte, N.C.

Amazon's offline ambitions could even boost Amazon's online operations further, even though they seem to be doing just fine for now. In the first three months of the year, the Seattle company earned $724 million, a 41 percent increase from a year earlier. Amazon soundly beat Wall Street's expectations, according to FactSet. Revenue increased 23 percent to $35.7 billion, also above expectations.

Amazon doesn't break out numbers for its retail-store operations. Amazon chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky told investors Thursday that the stores represent "another way to reach the customer and test what resonates with them." He said the company has been pleased with the results, but he didn't elaborate.

Exactly what it's learning, and what it plans to do with that knowledge, is the next big question.